


The Drifting Scent of Honeysuckle

by kayura_sanada



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Vomiting, canon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:19:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayura_sanada/pseuds/kayura_sanada
Summary: Ven chases down Terra when he walks away at Radiant Garden. Even though he was living on borrowed time, Ven still needed to make sure Terra knew he was loved.





	The Drifting Scent of Honeysuckle

Ven managed to get only a few steps from the reactor room where he’d left Aqua before he stumbled.

He put a hand to his mouth on instinct, by now ready for the sweet taste that poured onto his tongue as his throat worked around the thick well of _stuff_ bubbling up from his lungs. He bent low and coughed.

The scent and taste and sight was normal now. The small cough he’d had when he’d first watched Terra fly off into the Land of Departure’s sky had grown worse and worse as he’d traveled. Ven’s fingers scraped against the wall of the waterway. His shoulders shook. He stumbled further, not wanting Aqua to hear and kick up a fuss. Terra was out there, hurt and alone. Ven couldn’t let him think he wasn’t trusted. Ven believed in him. He needed…

He bent down low, hand over his chest, and convulsed, his throat momentarily clogged entirely. Petals spilled onto his tongue. He opened his mouth and let them fall out as his stomach heaved. After several heart-stopping seconds, the pile of flowers pushed out from his throat enough to give him a chance to cough, and when he did, the mess of flowers fell to the ground. He sucked in greedy gulps of air in between his body’s attempts to simply hack up the infected lungs themselves.

The splattered mess on the ground before him looked more like a vine than just some flowers. Petals and even tiny berries sat among a mass of long, spindly shoots. Ven spat out the remaining petals and pollen. They were coated with blood now. He grimaced. He’d finally caught up with Terra, but the confession he’d wanted to make – the confession he _needed_ to make, before he ran out of time and had to get a surgery or risk death – would be cruel at this moment. Terra needed to know he had a friend, someone who would stand by him. He didn’t need the burden of Ven’s feelings. Not now.

But he was running out of time.

He looked behind him and knelt down, splashing the water from the man-made stream onto the mess until it was largely gone. He grabbed another handful to wash out the taste of pollen. When he spat the water out, it came out slightly pink. He rinsed his mouth out once more before stumbling to his feet. His head spun. He grabbed his temple and moved forward.

Terra would have gotten pretty far and taken on quite a lead by now. He might have even left the world. Ven paled at the thought of searching for Terra all over again, especially with the way Terra had been hurt by Aqua. He touched his chest, imagining he could feel the flowers building and building within his lungs, pressing against the pads of his fingers. He shivered.

If he had the surgery, he would be safe. He was sure Master Eraqus would be able to find a way to take care of him. But he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to just give up his feelings for Terra without a fight.

But wouldn’t it be easier on Terra if he did?

Radiant Garden’s waterways continued on throughout the kingdom, setting a sort of background music to Ven’s progress. Unversed popped up along the pathways, forcing Ven to grit his teeth and power through. His chest felt twice its regular size, yet his lungs felt ten times smaller. He whistled in a breath after one fight, his chest struggling to move around the plants blossoming within.

He just needed to see Terra. To tell him that he believed in him, that he had always, _would_ always, believe in him. But could he tell Terra the rest? That he loved Terra, and that the love he felt was killing him?

No. No way. That would be the final burden that would break him.

He would just have to power through until Terra was sure of himself again.

With that in mind, he gritted his teeth and beat back the unversed as he made his way forward. Terra wasn’t in the aquaduct, nor the fountain court. Ven hurried through, leaving a few unversed behind in his race, hoping he hadn’t missed Terra entirely. If he had… well, even ignoring how hurt and lost Terra would continue to feel, it would mean Ven would have to keep searching for him, and Terra would take longer to heal from Aqua’s betrayal, and there would be a higher chance of Ven running out of time.

Ven made his way back to the garden square he’d been in before, but if Terra had been there, he wasn’t anymore. He ran a hand through his hair. Maybe Terra was gone? Maybe he’d missed him, after all. Ven wandered into the middle of the square, his heart hammering hot beside his lungs. Time pressed against him, insistent. A young boy needed help, and by the time Ven had finished making sure he was all right, he’d thought for sure any chance to find Terra had been lost. But the boy pointed Ven over toward a passage beyond the square. Ven hoped, and he ran.

More unversed blocked his path. By the time he reached a long stretch of a path leading to a new area of gardens, his breath was short and his face hot from the exertion of trying to breathe as he fought.

Finally he reached a small garden. Terra walked within that small circle, right in front of some tiny building in its center. Ven charged forward, lips lifting into a wide grin. Little Ienzo had been right. He wasn’t too late.

“Terra!”

Terra stopped and turned to him. His face was still caught in a rictus of pain, teeth tightly clenched, eyes squinted. He stared at Ventus without his usual grinning welcome. The pain in Ven’s chest grew. He sucked in a thin breath. Terra needed his brother, not anything Ven wanted to be. He smiled wide into Terra’s guarded face. “Take me with you,” he breathed.

That hadn’t been what he’d meant to say. But seeing Terra like this, seeing him look so alone, how could he say anything else?

Terra looked away from him. “I can’t do that, Ven.”

His smile slid away. He opened his mouth, but hesitated. How could he reach Terra now? How could his words breach the space between them all that Aqua had caused? But he couldn’t help feeling hurt. Didn’t Terra know that Ven would _never_ think such things about him? Didn’t Terra have any idea how much Ven loved him, just as he was?

Where had Ven failed? What did he lack, that Terra _couldn’t_ bring him with him?

“Why not?” he whispered, and hung his head.

“I just–” Ven felt Terra’s gaze on him, but he couldn’t look up. He didn’t want to see the distance in those eyes again. He rubbed his chest. “When I really need you, Ven, I know you’ll be there.”

He flinched. Terra clearly needed him _now_. And if he didn’t do something soon – if he didn’t say something soon – then he would either not be _him_ if he met Terra again or he wouldn’t be there at all. But he lifted his head and smiled, because that was what Terra needed. “Well, why wouldn’t I?” he said, and tasted pollen in his mouth, on his tongue. In this throat. “You’re my friend.”

Pain burst in his chest. He clamped his grin down, clenching his teeth until Terra had lifted his head to the sky, his gaze safely away from Ven. He could _feel_ the shoots of the flower rise as if growing into his throat, choking him.

“Yeah,” Terra said, and suddenly Ven couldn’t breathe. “You’re right. Thanks, Ve – Ven!”

He covered his mouth and bent over. Terra reached out for him. Ven waved a hand at him, trying to tell him to _leave_ , to just _go_. He felt the flowers in the back of his throat and tried to cough. The flowers didn’t move. He struggled to suck in a breath and panicked when he realized he couldn’t. Ignoring Ven’s silent pleas, Terra wrapped his arms around him, holding him by his chest and back as his knees shook. Despite himself, he reached out and gripped Terra’s shirt tight.

“Ven? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

He shook his head. A thin, reedy sound warbled out of his mouth as he tried to suck in air. Terra, hearing it, lifted Ven up and looked at his face. Whatever he saw made him pale. From the increasing lightheadedness, Ven imagined his lips might have been turning a little blue.

Terra clapped him on the back, already turning Ven around to prepare for the Heimlich maneuver. Ven dug his nails into Terra’s shirt, into his skin, and shook his head as hard as he could. Terra hesitated. “What do I do?” he asked.

Ven gestured to his mouth, then grimaced. There was no way he could explain. He ignored Terra and bent over as far as he could, trying to throw up the flowers if nothing else. When his knees finally failed him, Terra caught him and lowered him to the ground. Ven put his hands out and lay on all fours, heaving uselessly against the blockage inside him. Terra rubbed his back. He was saying something, but Ven couldn’t hear it over the buzzing rising in his ears. Ven fell onto his forearms and _pushed_. Tears rolled down his face. The taste of pollen was _everywhere_ ; he imagined his teeth turning yellow, his lips blue, until he looked like a broken flower, himself.

“Ven! Hold on! Someone, help!”

The words came clear the instant before a flower bloomed in the back of his throat.

He’d waited too long. He clenched his eyes shut as spots popped to life in his vision. Tears splashed to the stone beneath him. Would Terra have to watch him die?

No. _No._ He couldn’t do that to Terra. He _couldn’t_.

Desperate, Ven reached in and grabbed the thing, pulling at it. He had to be careful; if he broke it off, he would have nothing to hold on to. But the thin, wispy flower remained intact, and over agonizing seconds, he managed to tug it up a bit. The world spun. He kept trying to breathe in, but he didn’t get anything but loud sucking sounds. His fingers shook. Finally he gave up on air entirely and, with the last of his strength, got the line stem of the flower within three fingers and his thumb and _pulled_.

He felt like he was tugging on the entire plant, slowly moving it up his throat. The more he pulled, the more came up. He gagged on it. Terra, seeing him pulling something from his mouth, bent low and helped out. When Ven’s balance left him completely and he had to release the plant to keep himself up, Terra was the one to keep gently tugging. Still, despite how hard Terra tried to be careful, Ven’s body convulsed and shook from the lack of air, and Terra had to forego kindness for speed. The more he pulled out, the more Ven shuddered and the more Terra murmured incredulous, horrified noises. Among the taste of pollen and berries came the copper tang of blood.

He felt a snap of something in his throat, and the jutting length of the thickest end of the branch came out at Terra’s insistent pull, the base filled to the brim with long, white-petaled flowers and clumps of blue, bell-shaped berries and so much blood it spilled across Ven’s lips and down to the puddle of tears on the stone walkway. Ven sucked in the first breath in over a minute and coughed. Flower petals and pollen still coated the back of his throat, gathered into a long string of spit and blood on his tongue. He spat it out, not caring about anything but finally being able to breathe again.

“Honeysuckle?” Terra whispered, then tossed the wet branch to the side in favor of holding Ven up as he gasped and coughed and shivered. Terra rubbed his back and murmured in a soothing voice. Ven finally got his breathing back under control, only for the crying to get worse. He curled his head down until his forehead rested against the cool stone. He could smell the blood in the puddle just in front of his nose.

It was too late. He was out of time.

“Ven, what happened? Are you all right?” Then a second later, “no, that’s a stupid question. Who did this to you? Was it that boy? Vanitas?”

He couldn’t tell him now. He couldn’t tell Terra that it was Ven’s love for him that was killing him.

In the end, Ventus didn’t say anything, and Terra didn’t ask again. He just helped Ven up and used his own shirt to clean off the mess of spit and blood and pollen that had tangled into his skin. The branch sat on the ground, long and thin and covered in that brownish pre-bark. Flowers blossomed on tiny shoots jutting from the main branch, with a few berries still dangling from within their folds. He thought he could still feel the end at the bottom of his throat, rattling a bit with every breath.

He needed to make a choice. But he _couldn’t_ tell Terra. He was in a bad place. Something was _wrong_. Terra didn’t need the added burden of Ven’s feelings.

But if he didn’t, he would have to return to Master Eraqus or else… or else _die_. And Terra would _never_ forgive himself if Ven died from this.

Ven clenched his teeth and curled his hands into fists. What was the right thing to do? He closed his eyes. “I… I’m your friend,” he said, and felt the branch in his throat shake. He swallowed against the taste of blood and pollen and said, “but I love you.”

He looked up. Terra’s lips had parted, but his brows still creased into a deep furrow. “Ven,” Terra started, and Ventus turned away. He didn’t need to hear how Terra didn’t feel the same. He already knew. He was like Terra’s _brother_. They were like _family_. They were _friends_. None of that equated to what Ven wanted – what he _needed_ , in fact, for this disease to let him go.

He almost wished the boy in the mask hadn’t told him what his symptoms meant, back when they’d met in the Land of Departure. He almost wished he’d taken the option to have his feelings removed. It would have helped both him and Terra, in the long run. But he’d wanted to hope for more. How could he have known how long it would take him to find Terra again? How could he have known that Aqua would spy on Terra as if he was nothing more than some common villain?

Terra finished wiping him clean. He hugged him. “We can talk about that later,” Terra said, his words whispering over the skin of Ven’s ear. He shivered. “Right now, we need to get you back to Master Eraqus.”

Ven shook his head. He was trying to be vague, trying to keep from letting Terra know what had caused this. Which had worked; what could ‘we’ll talk about that later’ mean other than ‘I’ll let you down when I know you’re not dying anymore?’ But if Master Eraqus learned what had happened, there was no way he wouldn’t know, no way he wouldn’t understand the significance of Ven’s confession. He couldn’t let Terra be the one to take him back. But if he pushed Terra away, wouldn’t that make him feel like Ven didn’t want him around? Which would hurt worse?

“It’s all right,” he rasped. He’d gotten his answer. It had been the one he’d expected. All that was left was to go home, like everyone wanted him to. “I can get there. You don’t want to go back right now, right?”

“What?” Terra wrapped Ven into his arms and stood, acting as if Ven hadn’t even spoken. “That doesn’t matter right now! You’re hurt.”

The branch wriggled in his throat, setting him to coughing once more. He convulsed in Terra’s arms until Terra curled him into his bare chest. Ven wrapped his arms around Terra’s shoulders and sucked in gasp after gasp. “Hold on, Ven.” Terra grunted, shifting Ven in his arms until one held him beneath his rear. Ven felt the strain as Terra held him with one hand long enough to call his glider. He shook his head.

“Wait.”

Terra did, instantly freezing, likely worried about another fit. Ven bit his lip. This was getting worse and worse by the minute. Any effort to ensure Terra didn’t get hurt was leading to a moment that would end up getting Terra hurt. If only he’d been able to hold out a little longer; Terra would never have needed to know… but no. Because if Terra hadn’t been with him, he was certain he would have died.

“You saved my life,” he said. Terra stayed silent, waiting. “You’ve saved me more than you know.”

Terra’s voice trembled. His hands clenched around him. “Ven?”

“I know you have your reasons for being out here. I know something’s wrong.” Terra’s arms spasmed around him. “I don’t want to keep you from what you feel you have to do. I can make it to Master Eraqus.” Probably. “So just… just be careful? And come home. And…” He took a deep breath. “And when you do, and I seem a little different, then just remember that I love you.” He wanted to say he’d always love Terra, but that wouldn’t be true. Tears fell from his eyes. He didn’t _want_ to stop loving Terra. If ever there was anyone in all these worlds who was worth loving, it was him. “And that I’m just… recovering.”

“Ven, what is this? What’s happening to you?”

He just shook his head, unable to say anything more. He hid his face into Terra’s skin and tried to breathe in the scent of him through his runny nose. The attempt to hide was useless; even if his shoulders weren’t shaking, the wetness gathering on Terra’s chest would have been a dead giveaway.

“Are you dying?”

Terra’s voice had fallen to a whisper. He curled in around Ven as if to do so might shield him from the disease. Cradled within Terra’s arms and the glider’s walls, Ven found himself unable to say it. He skipped Terra’s question for what mattered. “There’s a cure. But…”

Terra’s grip tightened. Without another word, he started up the glider and guided it into the sky.

Ven didn’t want Terra to face what this meant. If Master Eraqus let it slip – and he would; Terra would ask what had happened to Ven and Master Eraqus would tell him, and then Terra would understand what Ven’s confession had meant. He would blame himself for Ven’s disease. He would blame himself for _not loving Ven._

That wasn’t what he wanted.

But getting healed at the expense of his feelings for Terra? That wasn’t what he wanted, either.

He didn’t want to live a life without recognizing Terra’s heart for the precious thing it was. He didn’t want to look at Terra and not see in him everything Ven cared for most. It hurt to love Terra and know he didn’t love Ven back, but that hurt never banked the gentle fire that burned incessantly inside him, the pure belief that Terra was the right one. The person whom Ven could love without fear or doubt. Terra would never let him down.

“Aqua was wrong.”

Terra tensed. He looked down. “Armor up,” he said softly, and Ven did. Terra did the same, hiding that carefully neutral gaze from his eyes.

“She was wrong,” he said again, this time speaking from within his helmet. The words had an echo as they breached the Realm Between. “I know you’re not what she thinks.” Terra didn’t say anything. “I know you’re a good person. Even if you end up close to the darkness, it doesn’t matter. No matter where you are or whether you have darkness inside you, you’re still you.” He stared at Terra’s chest and the red and gold armor that covered it, keeping Terra safe. “And that’s who I love.”

Terra made some sort of sound as if in pain. Ven looked up. He couldn’t see anything, of course, but he imagined he could. “You’re wrong.”

“No, I’m not.” Ven lifted his chin, ready for Terra to argue, but he didn’t. With Terra’s silence came his own. There was nothing more to say.

Terra raced through the dark space between the worlds, dodging around a few that he recognized now, finally arriving at the Land of Departure. Yet, once they arrived, Terra hesitated. Ven looked up again, wishing he could see Terra’s face. Every breath Terra took moved Ven within his grasp, enough that Ven could tell Terra was breathing heavier than before. He looked at Terra’s hands and saw them gripping the glider so tight the metal of his armor separated slightly around his knuckles.

Terra didn’t want to go back.

“I’ll make it from here.” He touched Terra’s shoulder, surprised when Terra flinched.

“No,” Terra rasped. “I…” Terra shifted, looking down at Ven. “I have to know you’ll be all right.”

He opened his mouth, ready to say he would be. Even though he could feel the tickle of flowers in his throat again, he knew he would be able to continue breathing long enough to get to Master Eraqus. From there, he was sure the master would know what to do.

But he wouldn’t be all right. Suddenly, he was afraid. Afraid to go back, to face what he had to do. To lose these feelings meant losing an essential part of himself. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want Terra to hurt, thinking that his death was Terra’s fault. But he didn’t want to lose himself, either.

“Tell me,” he said. He leaned up, putting weight on his own feet for the first time since Terra began their return in order to get closer to Terra. “Tell me what you need to say. About my loving you.”

Terra leaned back. He shook his head. “No. Ven–”

“Please,” he begged. He grabbed Terra’s shoulder, using it as leverage. Forcing Terra to not run any further away. “I know it’s selfish, and I’m sorry. But – but if I… it won’t matter later the way it matters now.”

Terra shook his head. “You’re not going to die,” he said, but Ven could hear the warble in his voice. The doubt.

“No,” Ven agreed, certain where Terra was not. “But the cure – it. Will change me.” Terra stilled. “I – I don’t _want…_ ” He stopped. Took a deep breath. “I want to know now. While I’m still myself.”

Silence. Terra’s silences had never sounded like this, as if they were the echoes of a last pound on a bass drum. Ven shrank within the expanding space between their words, feeling a distance rise that he couldn’t breach.

It was ruined at the tickle of a petal in his throat; Ven coughed it up, tasting blood on his tongue again. When he plucked it out through the armor and tossed it over the edge of the glider, Terra inhaled a sharp breath.

“I love you, too.”

Ven snapped his head up, his mouth falling open.

“Please,” Terra continued, his voice like broken glass, “don’t die.”

He’d figured it out. The heavy lead of his heart poisoned his blood to ice. He hung his head. “I won’t,” he said. He didn’t want Terra to hurt. He tried to smile, to invoke some sort of fake cheer. “I’ll be fine. So you don’t have to pretend that you love me.”

Sudden, snapping silence. Then, “what?”

Ven froze.

Ven pulled away, his hands letting go of Terra to retreat. This time it was Terra who reached out, Terra who grabbed tight to armor and angled forward. “Ven, what are you talking about?”

“N-Nothing.”

“ _Ven.”_

It was the sound of that broken glass voice that did it to him. He slumped in Terra’s arms. “It’s called hanahaki disease.” He remembered rubbing at the tingling feeling in his chest as he coughed, opening the door to his room, only to find a hooded guy waiting within. The hooded guy had watched Ven cough, watched Ven pull a face at the taste of pollen on his tongue. He’d been the one to tell Ven what he had. “It’s when flowers begin to bloom in your lungs.”

The pressure of Terra’s hands on him altered, tight and weak, tight and weak. Clenching and unclenching. “I don’t understand.”

He hadn’t, either. Not at first. He’d loved Terra for so long. He hadn’t even known the feeling had changed. Not until the hooded boy had pointed out how melancholic Ven had found himself when thinking of Terra. The boy had spoken of Ven’s feelings as if they’d been his own.

And then Terra had left, and the boy had told him his options. Receive treatment or die. “I have to tell Terra,” he’d said.

“Why bother?” the boy had scoffed. “Even if you caught up to him, by the time you’ll have done so, he’ll have already changed.”

The boy had been right. Terra was hurting, and Ven hadn’t been there to help him. And now…

“The disease happens…” Ven scrunched into himself. “It happens sometimes. And it’s completely curable. I’ll be okay.” He said the last part like a plea.

“You’re dying.” It wasn’t a question anymore. “Why would you run around the worlds looking for me when you were dying? Just to find out how I feel about you? You could ask me that anytime.” Terra paused. “What is the cure?”

Ven rubbed his chest as the honeysuckle growing within tickled him. “It gets rid of the cause of the disease.”

Another, lengthier pause, as Terra waited for him to explain. When he didn’t, Terra prodded him. “Which is?”

He shrank further into himself. “It’s my fault.”

“Don’t–”

“It is!” He stood up, nearly falling off the glider in his haste. Terra made some unintelligible noise and grabbed him, yanking him down so hard they both ended up sprawled nearly horizontal on the glider’s seat. Terra wrapped his arms around Ven and shifted them around until Ven was sitting on the seat, Terra’s body acting as shield around him.

“Be careful!” he admonished far too late. Ven couldn’t believe the tears forming in his eyes. Before he knew what he was doing, he found his arms wrapped tight around Terra, trying to bring him even closer.

“You don’t have to love me. I never needed you to love me.” He pressed himself closer, wishing their armors weren’t needed here. Wishing he had any right to be closer than this. “This stupid disease. Who needs to be loved back? It’s so _stupid_.” He hiccuped. His chest itched like mad. Running out of time, he thought again, and _hated_ it. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I need you to believe that.”

“Okay.” Terra leaned his chin on Ven’s shoulder and held him just as tight. “Okay. I believe you.”

Ven just cried quietly for a while. Would he remember this moment? Would he look back on it with confusion, not understanding what he’d been feeling? Not understanding this burning, wretched, miraculous feeling of being with the man he loved? When he next saw Terra, would he really look at him and not care?

He sobbed. He didn’t want to lose this! Even if it hurt, he loved Terra more than anything. Why was that wrong? Why was he being punished for it? Why was _Terra_ being punished, when he hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t deserve it?

“I’m not sure I understand everything,” Terra said, still holding Ven as if he was in danger of falling. “I don’t know how your love for me relates to this disease you have. But just as you need me to believe your regard for me, there’s one thing I need you to believe, too.” Terra shifted one of his hands from Ven’s shoulder blades to the back of his head and rubbed his head against Ven’s temple, right over the horn of his armor. “I love you.”

Ven sniffed. “Not like that.”

Terra hummed. “ _Yes_ like that.”

He shifted. His chest tingled so much he coughed just to try to rattle it into something more settled. It didn’t, however. Instead the feeling grew, changing from an itch to something so aggravating he twitched and jerked in Terra’s arms. Terra’s hands clenched around the back of his armor before he suddenly pulled back. Ven could imagine what Terra was thinking, but he couldn’t help it. He scratched at his armor as if he could reach the plant squirming around inside him. Terra grabbed his hand. “What’s happening? Are you having another attack?” Without waiting for an answer, he maneuvered them both until Ven was sitting on his lap, then made to descend to the Land of Departure.

“No! No, I…” He took an experimental breath and gasped when he was able to breathe _deep_ , with that little bit of extra space that made his lungs as filled as possible. “I can breathe.” He touched his throat. He couldn’t feel anything. He acted as if to clear it out and winced. That _hurt_. But he hadn’t felt any obstruction. Not even a petal. He could still taste pollen in his mouth, but it was slowly dissipating.

Terra turned to their world, practically vibrating within his armor. “We need to have Master Eraqus see you.”

Ven shook his head, thinking only of how much Master Eraqus and Aqua had just finished scoring holes into Terra’s heart. “No. I’ll explain everything, Terra, I promise. You don’t have to go down there.” Terra turned back to him. Without being able to see Terra’s face, he could only assume what Terra was feeling. But he knew Terra. He knew him very, very well. “They hurt you. You don’t have to go back until you’re ready. Until then, I’m here for you. Always.”

Terra stared down at his hands, carefully gripping the glider on either side of Ven, creating a safety net around him. “There are things I’ve…”

“Terra, I know your heart.” Ven touched his shoulder. “Even if you have darkness inside it, even if you didn’t have room for me in there, I know you. I’ve known you for years.” He squeezed Terra’s arm, wishing they could touch skin to skin so he could convey every ounce of his faith. “Whatever’s happened on your journey, I know you’re still that good person who’s been with me all this time.”

The words felt more true the more he said them. He settled back into Terra’s chest. He’d chased after Terra in order to save himself, sure, but he’d also feared the cryptic warnings the masked boy had given him. He shouldn’t have doubted. Terra could change in a million ways, and he would still be, at his core, the exact same. A good person. “I’m not,” Terra whispered. “The things I’ve done… Aqua was right.”

“No,” Ven said sharply. “No, she wasn’t. Whatever mistakes you’ve made, you made them in order to help others. Right?” Terra was silent. “I love you, Terra. Not because you’re perfect or strong, but because you’ve always been there for me. Because you would _always_ be there for me. Like I’m always there for you. Right?” Again, silence. But this time, Terra let go of the glider to hug Ven from behind. “If you could see what I see in you, you would never fear the darkness you carry ever again.”

Terra dipped his head into the crevice between Ven’s shoulder and neck. It was a bit uncomfortable with the armor on, but Ven didn’t care. “There are things I need to tell you,” Terra said after endless minutes just sitting there together.

“All right. I still have to tell you about what happened, too. We can share stories.”

Terra huffed. “My stories aren’t like that.”

“How do you know?” Ven grinned when Terra fell silent again, taking the victory with only a modicum of grace. “Hey, wherever you want to go next, can we get there? I really want to kiss you. After I wash my mouth out first.”

“You were dying less than an hour ago,” Terra said, as if that should slow them down.

“Sounds like a good reason to kiss to me.”

Terra groaned and started up his glider again, this time heading away from the Land of Departure. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

Ven snuggled back into Terra, ignoring how their armors scraped together. He thought he felt a rumble vibrating from Terra’s chest, almost like a purr. It made him smile. “I’ve never felt better.”

**Author's Note:**

> The meanings of honeysuckle, as listed within Brenda Jenkins Kleager's "Secret Meanings of Flowers": Affection, Bonds of Love, Devoted Love, "Do you love me?" Domestic Happiness, Fidelity, Fraternal Affection, Generosity, Generous and Devoted Love, Happiness, Love, Money, Protection, Psychic Powers, Sweet Disposition, "A Wedding Will Follow Shortly."


End file.
